WASHINGTON, DC, June 1, 2004 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- The American Wind Energy
Association (AWEA) supports the efforts of the International Renewable
Energy Conference ("Renewables 2004") to promote renewable energy to
help reduce the threat of climate change.

AWEA wishes in particular to draw attention to several characteristics
of wind power as it is developing in the U.S., which underscore the
potential of this technology to provide a large share of the
country's-and the world's-power, while delivering compound environmental
and economic benefits. AWEA calls for a number of actions to remove
barriers to large-scale development of wind power in the U.S.

Characteristics of wind power as it is developing in the U.S.:

Wind power is no longer "too expensive."
Today's large, high-tech utility-scale wind turbines generate
electricity at a cost that can be competitive with other new power
plants. Moreover, the cost of power from a wind farm is stable over time
and provides valuable insurance against volatility in the cost of
natural gas and other fuels used for power generation. A growing number
of U.S. projects have been built principally on the basis of their
economics, including the 162-megawatt (MW) Colorado Green wind farm in
Lamar, Colorado, and two 40-MW projects in the Dakotas, completed in
2003 alone. More are in the pipeline, including wind power bids that won
a total of 450 MW out of a 1,000-MW all-source solicitation by one of
the nation's large utilities, Xcel Energy. Government incentives are
still needed, however, to allow wind to continue to compete with
established energy technologies that still receive subsidies in various
forms, and to further accelerate investment in wind.

Local economic benefits of wind power revitalize rural communities.
The communities where wind farms are placed welcome the additional
income and jobs that come with wind energy development. Increased county
revenues can go to schools, hospitals, and other services. Farmers and
ranchers can continue to work the land up to the base of the turbines
while earning $2,000 to $4,000 per year per turbine installed on their
property. Large-scale development of wind power in the U.S. would blow
prosperity back to many rural communities in the American heartland.

Sophisticated technology makes wind power reliable and predictable,
although it cannot be "dispatched" on demand.
Modern wind turbines are very reliable, and wind farms are available to
generate power over 98% of the time, an outstanding performance for any
energy technology. And while the wind does not blow on demand, seasonal
and daily wind patterns at specific locations can be anticipated over
time. Short-term forecasting is also increasingly accurate. In
California, for example, wind farm operators participate in a program
that provides wind power forecasts to the California Independent System
Operator (Cal-ISO), the organization that manages power flows on the
state's grid, which then schedules the energy from wind farms into the
grid about an hour ahead of time. AWEA is reaching out to utility
managers and decision-makers to inform them about the technology's
capabilities.

These economic and operational characteristics make it possible to
envision a near-term future in which wind plays a substantial role in
U.S. power supply, thereby helping curb the nation's emissions of
greenhouse gases and air pollutants in an economical and efficient way.
However, wind power still faces daunting policy and regulatory barriers.
AWEA calls for the following actions to remove these barriers and
accelerate the development of wind power in the U.S.:

Actions to remove barriers to large-scale development of wind power in
the U.S.:

Long-term extension of the federal production tax credit (PTC)

The credit, which is important for the financing of wind farms,
expired December 31, 2003, and still has not been extended as of May
2004. The uncertainty about the timing of an extension has brought
almost all wind power investments in the U.S. to a halt. This is the
third time that the PTC has expired in five years. A long-term extension
is urgently needed to put the industry back to work, eliminate the
boom-and-bust cycles resulting from successive expirations, and provide
the industry with a stable planning horizon.

National renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS)
The RPS, which requires that a minimum amount of electricity be
generated from renewable sources, is a market-friendly tool that has
successfully stimulated least-cost renewable energy development in Texas
and several other states. A national standard would provide a
much-needed long-term market signal and stimulate large-scale deployment
of renewable energy at competitive costs over time.

Non-discriminatory interconnection and transmission policies
Over 200 different "tariffs" throughout the country govern the
costs and conditions for access to, and use of, the common electricity
grid. Many charge heavy, discriminatory penalties against new
technologies like wind. For example, on the Western Area Power
Administration (WAPA) system, an area encompassing some of America's
windiest lands but which operates under outdated rules, the cost of
bringing wind power to market is a prohibitive $20 per megawatt-hour
(MWh), ten times more than in California where rules are more fair.
Non-discriminatory policies are needed nationwide to remove these costly
barriers to wind power development.

Large-scale "wind pipeline" to bring wind power to market
AWEA proposes a three-phase plan to collect large amounts of wind
power from the windy, lightly-populated heartland to deliver it to urban
centers:

Phase 1 -- Transmission reforms to use existing power line
capacity more efficiently;

Phase 2 -- Upgrades and additions to some local transmission lines
to remove regional bottlenecks; and

Phase 3 -- Construction of two major high-voltage lines from the
Great Plains to growing demand centers to the East (toward Chicago) and
West.

Clean Air credits for wind power and other renewable energy
sources
The Clean Air Act in the U.S. sets caps on emissions of sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxide, but wind and other renewable energy sources
are not compensated for their contribution to reducing emissions of
these pollutants. Moreover, the Clean Air Act does not currently set any
cap on emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas. The
Clean Air Act should be expanded to cap emissions of carbon dioxide and
should allow renewables to participate in credit trading schemes by
setting aside specific allowances for these technologies or assigning
allowances to all generators, including renewables, on an output basis.

Prompt adoption of these measures as part of a national energy plan to
increase the overall reliability of the U.S. power supply while reducing
emissions caused by power generation would unleash investments in the
U.S. wind energy market, and boost wind's share in U.S. power supply
from less than 1% today to 6% - about what hydropower generates today -
by 2020. The U.S. can participate in the Bonn conference negotiations in
the knowledge that the American wind energy industry is ready and eager
to help the country meet ambitious renewable energy targets and join the
world's leaders in the field of renewable energy development.

AWEA, formed in 1974, is the national trade association of the U.S. wind
energy industry. The association's membership includes turbine
manufacturers, wind project developers, utilities, academicians, and
interested individuals.

More information on wind energy is available at
the AWEA web site: www.awea.org